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Amazon faces a putative class action lawsuit filed by a former customer who claims the e-commerce retailer automatically charged his bank account for a Prime premium membership without his consent.
Plaintiff Gregory Harris of California alleges that he purchased products on amazon.com and was informed that he would only be charged for those items. However, Harris claims that his account was upgraded to the premium membership Amazon Prime without his permission.
The Amazon class action lawsuit states that Harris was charged $107.91 for the Prime membership which was automatically taken out of his bank account. Although he canceled the membership after one withdrawal of $107, Harris alleges that Amazon would have continued to take unauthorized, reoccurring payments from his account had they not been stopped.
According to the Amazon Prime class action lawsuit, this is a “common scheme” of the internet retailer used to mislead and entice customers into making purchases from amazon.com, while customers are actually being charged more than what is represented. Harris claims that had Amazon properly represented the hidden fee, he would not have bought products on the website.
The Amazon false advertising class action lawsuit states that Amazon failed to take reasonable steps to inform Harris that he would be charged for a premium membership.
The plaintiff claims that Amazon failed to provide an opportunity for consumers to read and review the accurate conditions of the purchase prior to buying the items: “As such, defendant took advantage of defendant’s position of perceived power in order to deceive plaintiff and the class members to use its services.”
Harris states that the Amazon membership fee violates California’s False Advertising Act which makes it illegal to engage in advertising “which is untrue or misleading and which is known, or which by the exercise of reasonable care should be known, to be untrue or misleading…”
The Amazon Prime membership class action lawsuit also claims that the company violated the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act which states that a “preauthorized electronic fund transfer from a consumer’s account may be authorized by the consumer only in writing, and a copy of such authorization shall be provided to the consumer when made.”
If approved, the Amazon class action lawsuit would be open to all U.S. consumers who purchased products from amazon.com and were charged an additional membership fee. Harris is also hoping to represent a subclass of U.S. Class Members whose bank accounts were debited on a reoccurring basis by Amazon without obtaining a written authorization signed or similarly authenticated for preauthorized electronic fund transfers within the past year.
Another recently filed Amazon class action lawsuit regarding Amazon’s list price was dismissed in October 2015 by a California federal court. Plaintiffs Andrea Fagerstrom and Allen Wiseley, claimed that Amazon misrepresented competitive pricing by only selecting the highest price it could find for a particular item. According to the court, the plaintiffs accepted the terms of Amazon’s arbitration agreement at the time they made their online purchase therefore the case was dismissed.
Harris is represented by Todd M. Friedman and Adrian R. Bacon of The Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.
The Amazon Prime False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is Gregory Harris, et al. v. Amazon.com LLC, Case No. BC606984 in the Superior Court of California For the County of Los Angeles.
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165 thoughts onAmazon Faces Prime Membership Class Action Lawsuit
I merely opened the Amazon browser to look at a product. I did not purchase but placed the item in my cart and left. I then received an email that I just signed up for prime. I immediately canceled and called and will receive a refund in 3-5 days but SINCE WHEN can a company charge your card with absolutely NO JUSTIFICATION OR AUTHORIZATION?! I cannot think of a single way that I could even have been tricked into joining.
If you look at the FTC guidelines for fair online disclosures they have an obligation to provide “Clear and Conspicuous disclosure”. It’s funny but I use amazon to buy things pretty regularly and this has only happened to me twice. So why is this happening? I was curious of when Amazon was going to release their earning statement and I found that on both events Amazon released their statement just after tricking me into a prime membership. Is this an attempt to inflate their statements ahead of their upcoming statement of earnings? IDK.
I was just charged and there was no notice given or authorized by me. The same thing happened to my husband last month.
This just happened to me 2 days ago, $100.71 was taken out of my bank acct for amzn prime. Best believe I demanded a refund asap. This should not hv happened at all. Instead of telling me I will be getting a refund in 3 to 5 days, instead they need to be more concerned about losing customers to this security breach.
I have this date noticed an AmazonPrime membership fee of $99.00 posted to my charge card which I did not want nor did I authorize. I ended my “membership” then. One page says “To report an unknown, suspicious, or fraudulent…..”, contact customer service. I clicked on “Customer Service” and got a message that I am not currently a member of Amazon Prime. Don’t know if that’s the end of it or not. Probably not. Amazon.com has cooked its goose with me and I will monitor closely to make sure a refund is issued.
they never gave me my $300 back for PlayStation I have purchased
Amazon charged my account for a prime membership I did not authorize. When I called today to get a refund, the CSR explained it was because I accidently clicked on a prime video, which I did not do in the first place. Refund was given but I wonder how kany thousands of dollars they make off of people that do not clal for refund. I want in in the class action suit.
Amazon keeps subscribing me to stuff that I didn’t consent to after I bought the Firestick. First it started with Prime, then HBO. Today it was Showtime. They insist I clicked on something by accident, which I am certain I didn’t because I’ve been binge watching one show all day. Not only that, I have “one click” turned on and there is a parental control on my stick. I’m sick of them!
I have one click turned off, not on.
I discovered yesterday that I was charged $11.98 monthly for the last seven months. I asked for a refund and was told it would be returned to my bank account. Nevertheless I would like to join this case as a matter of principal.
I wish to be included in this class-action lawsuit. Amazon offered me a 30-day trial days after I closed one without being charged. This page was between the cart and checkout page – a whole, unexpected diversion. I had just ended a 30-day trial and wondered if they were suddenly offering me another one. The button at the bottom of the page said “Get Started” but when I clicked it for more information, I was instantly enrolled in Prime, my 1-click credit card (not even activated!) was charged $107, and I was, instead of being presented with options or information, taken to the order confirmation page (I had been buying a laptop battery).
So, I was presented with a 30-day trial, I clicked ‘Get Started’, and I was enrolled and charged.
This is fraud. I called and demanded that the charge be reversed and called my credit card company to alert them to this scam.
If there is a class action lawsuit, and Amazon is ripe for one because they are doing this, then please include me.
I am doing some research because my account was just charged a Prime membership fee of $102.61 that I did not authorize. I was able to catch the discrepancy immediately because I am hyper-aware of what my checking account balance is at all times. Anyway, I went right online into my account and cancelled the membership. I then wrote customer service about the issue and they assured me it was a fluke and would never happen again. I don’t understand how such a “fluke” could occur though. I cancelled my Prime membership March 13th, 2017 because shipments were not arriving on time as was supposedly guaranteed by my Prime status. Because I manually cancelled the membership through Amazon.com I am 100% certain that the “auto-renew” option was turned off. Also, in the past I would get an email 3 days before the membership was set to auto-renew and I received no notification whatsoever this time. Something very, very fishy is going on. Please keep me informed because I would like to participate as well. While it’s great that the refund was immediately issued and customer service was so responsive, I do wonder how many accounts are getting ripped off where the people DON’T notice and Amazon gets away with it.